Metacognitive beliefs and psychopathological risk factors in adolescent's alcohol consumption

Metacognitive beliefs play a central role in adult alcohol abuse (Spada et al., 2014), while their role in adolescent risk behaviors is less investigated. The aim of this research was to investigate the associations among metacognition, psychopathological risk and inclination to drink in a community sample of adolescents (13-20 y.o.) subdivided according to AUDIT-C scores in drinkers (n = 106) vs. nondrinkers (n = 346). The measures were: the PAMS and NAMS (Spada & Wells, 2008), respectively, for positive (self-regulatory function of alcohol) and negative (uncontrollability and damage of alcohol) metacognitions; the CBA-G (Bertolotti et al., 2006) for the psychopathological risk. The results indicate that adolescents drinkers, if confronted with nondrinkers, reported more positive metacognitive beliefs (PAMS) and a higher psychopathological vulnerability: differences emerged in risk-taking, unusual experiences and more frequent use of substances. On the contrary, the negative metacognitive beliefs (NAMS) were higher in nondrinkers and for girls. Regression analysis indicated that the positive metacognitive beliefs were the strongest predictor of alcohol consumption than other factors (emotional instability, risk-taking, and sensation seeking), in accordance with findings obtained with young university students (Clark et al., 2012). The negative metacognitive beliefs (NAMS) predicted a poor implication consumer for girls only. These results, if confirmed in other studies on non-clinical samples, suggest a different protective role of negative metacognitive beliefs and gender factors in early alcohol assumption among adolescents compared with adults with alcohol use and problem drinking.